Gabon minister stops the new Mega from using me.ga

MegaUpload founder Kim ‘Dotcom’ Schmitz recently spoke about the need to ensure that no element of his new file-transfer service Mega is based in the US. American authorities are already prosecuting him over his original company’s operations, and could easily seize his domain names or switch off his servers once again.

However, there may be other countries where local courts or authorities could also hinder his new business.

And that possibly includes the West African nation of Gabon. When Dotcom unveiled more details about his planned Mega service last week, he said he’d shun dot com domains, over which the US has jurisdiction, and indicated a plan to go with www.me.ga when his new service goes live next January, a year to the day that the Americans shut down his old website.

But, according to Stuff.co.nz, that’s not going to happen, because .ga is the top-level domain for Gabon, and the country’s Communications Minister, Blaise Louembe, has stepped in to ban the all new Mega company from using it. He reportedly said that his country “cannot serve as a platform or screen for committing acts aimed at violating copyrights, nor be used by unscrupulous people”.

Dotcom’s lawyer Ira Rothken has seemingly confirmed to C-Net that the new Mega venture will not now be using Me.ga, though presumably, having discovered Louembe’s viewpoint on the matter before actually launching any new service, the Gabon minister’s decision won’t cause any major problems for the launch of Dotcom’s latest venture.

Meanwhile, having been dubbed “unscrupulous” by Louembe, Dotcom himself was quick to blame American influence on the .ga set back, tweeting: “Gabon oil income is 60% of state revenues. Over half of Gabon’s crude oil shipments go to the US. We knew that ;-)”

As previously reported, US prosecutors have claimed that the launch of Mega v2 might put Dotcom in breach of his bail terms in New Zealand, where he is fighting an extradition application by the States. Rothken, though, does not agree.

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